According to China
Daily, the National Copyright Administration of China released a report
which states that China's internet copyright industry grew by over 27% in 2017
and reached over 636 billion yuan, or about US$100 billion.

The report was released
on 23 April by the Internet Copyright Industry Research Center, ahead of the World
Intellectual Property Day this Thursday.

"The vitality of the internet copyright industry and
its importance to the national economy have experienced rapid and steady growth,"
said Mr Zhang Qinkun, Secretary-General of the Internet Copyright Industry
Research Center. The Center was set up in 2016 by the National Copyright
Administration in cooperation with technology giant Tencent.

Credit: National Copyright Administration of China

Key findings

According to the report, the internet copyright industry in
China was worth 636.5 billion yuan in 2017, a 27% increase from 2016, as new
industrial forms emerge. The report also highlighted that nearly half the value
is contributed by users’ paid services.

China's internet copyright industry developed in diverse
fields in 2017, such as short videos and livestreaming, but the major
contributions are still from online news portals and online games, which
accounted for 73% of the total value.

The online news and information market increased more than 40%
to 30.5 billion yuan, while the online gaming market grew by 32% and reached
235.5 billion yuan.

At the same time, the online music market grew by 22% year
on year to 17.5 billion yuan.

The report also stated that in the past two years,
livestreaming and short videos have experienced most rapid growth – the live
streaming market totalled nearly 40 billion yuan as the number of live
streaming users reached 422 million.

The market for pay-per-view videos reached 21.8 billion yuan
in 2017 and is expected to maintain a 60% increase in the next two years.

In term of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR),
Mr Zhang said the limited development of the facilities have restrained the
development of VR and AR.

Prospects

According to Mr Zhang, these report findings show that “China's
internet copyright industry has said farewell to the old formula that only values
traffic and embraces a new era that values content”.

Commenting on industry prospects, Mr Zhang said "the
focus needs to be on improving the quality of the content to attract users”.

He also noted that the industry is in urgent
need of innovating its business model and developing a paid-users market – all
dependent on the protection of valuable content and the order of healthy
competition.

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